September 13th, 2009 7:27 pm

Vampires in, teen dramas out

‘The Vampire Diaries’ sets new highs for The CW, while the return of ‘90210’ and premiere of ‘Melrose’ fail to break new ground.

The ratings ‘preseason’ began last week with the series premiere of ‘Melrose Place,’ ‘Glee’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and sophomore premiere of ‘90210.’

The CW started off the preseason with ‘90210,’ despite the heavy promotion and The CW’s spin doctors, the show got off to a slow start with only 2.561M, a 1.3/4 (rating/share) with A18-49 , 1.7/6 in A18-34, 2.6/8 in W18-34 and 1.8/5 in W18-49. Proceeding ‘90210′ was the freshman premiere of ‘Melrose,’ retention was almost perfect but keep in mind numbers were on the low side. ‘Melrose’ mustered a paltry, 2.270M, A18-49 1.3/3 (rating/share), A18-34 1.5/5, W18-34 2.5/7 and W18-49 1.8/5.

On a brighter note, The CW’s other freshman class, ‘The Vamire Diaries’ bit off a lot more viewers, 4.84M, A18-49 2.1/6, A18-34 2.2/8, W18-34 3.0/10 and W18-49 2.8/8. The debut saw the highest audience numbers ever for a CW series premiere.

Elsewhere at Fox, Fall premiere of summer hit ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ posted 6.465M, with A18-49 2.7/8 and A18-34 3.0/9. Lead out Glee managed to build from its lead in, pulling 7.136M, A18-49 3.3/9 and A18-34 3.6/10

Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.